Job Information
Applied Research Associates, Inc. Geophysics Research Scientist in Burlington, Massachusetts
Description
At ARA, we strive to hire employees who have the right skills and demonstrate our core values of passion, freedom, service, and growth. ARA’s Algorithms, Modeling, and Assessment (AMA) Division is seeking a Geophysics Research Scientist. The selected candidate will contribute to research projects in seismology, acoustics, and other fields of physical science. ARA expects the selected individual to work well with diverse teams of scientists and engineers, collaborate across different disciplines, and have the desire to develop and lead new research projects.
This position is located in Burlington, MA but it does allow remote work for qualified candidates who live near or in the Houston, TX area. Due to the nature of work performed candidates must be U.S. citizens eligible for a Department of Defense Secret, or higher, level security clearance.
Job Responsibilities
Operate geophysical instrumentation in office and outdoor field locations:
Maintain and test geophysical instrumentation and associated hardware.
Travel to remote areas, including international travel, to install instrumentation and perform geophysical studies.
Collect and process data from geophysical instrumentation, including distributed acoustic sensing.
Conduct advanced research:
Develop techniques and algorithms to discover new insights into geophysical phenomena and improve automated processing of seismic, acoustics, and other physics-based measurements.
Think outside the box to develop and validate novel solutions to difficult geophysics problems.
Lead research projects focused on detecting and characterizing explosions in seismic and acoustic data.
Generate project ideas and support proposal development.
Use the following skills:
Seismic and acoustic wavefield simulation tools.
Shallow geophysics exploration techniques.
Time-series and spectral domain signal analysis.
Graphical data and results visualization.
Advanced deep learning and data mining approaches.
Advanced numerical analysis using prototyping-level software, such as Matlab or Python.
Support multiple, on-going projects:
Work collaboratively with dynamic teams of researchers.
Work independently to expand your knowledge base on specific topics.
Interact with software developers to implement solutions.
Conduct field experimentation and data collection.
Author and contribute to superior-quality reports, presentations, proposals, and other technical products.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor’s and 5-7 years of related of experience in seismology, acoustics, or a related geophysics field or Masters and 3-5 years of related experience.
Significant expertise using modern physics-based modeling tools and performing pre- and post-processing of floating-point data (e.g. Python and Python toolkits; Matlab; bash/csh/tcsh scripting; C/C++/ Fortran/Julia or other high-performance computing language).
Extensive experience testing, maintaining, installing, operating, and troubleshooting geophysical instrumentation and associated equipment in the office and in outdoor, harsh environments.
Experience in collecting and/or analyzing shallow geophysics data, such as seismic, electrical, magnetic, gravity, GPR, and remote sensing.
Willingness to travel up to 75%, including foreign travel.
Experience with Linux operating systems and high-performance computing platforms.
Self-motivated, driven, creative, curious, ready to work as a member of a team as well as lead teams of scientists and engineers.
Outstanding interpersonal skills, able to build strong relationships with clients as well as colleagues inside ARA and across the geophysics research community.
Excellent oral and written communication skills, with a focus on detail, a polished and professional presentation style, and strong technical project management skills.
Preferred Qualifications:
Expertise in fiber optic sensing tools (Distributed Acoustic Sensing) and associated data processing.
Experience in applications of machine learning to geophysical data and other sensor-based measurements, including supervised and unsupervised learning, deep learning, convolutional neural networks, clustering, feature engineering, and data augmentation.
Knowledge of and experience with artificial intelligence approaches to computer vision, such as object detection, textural analysis, photogrammetry.
Experience in software engineering, including version control, Agile development, cloud computing platforms.
Active TS security clearance or the ability to receive and maintain a clearance.
About Us:
Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) is an employee-owned international research and engineering company known for providing technically superior solutions to complex and challenging problems in the physical sciences. We were founded in Albuquerque, NM in 1979 and currently employ over 2,000 staff members in ARA offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. We provide our customers broad and expanding technical expertise in defense, civil, and health technologies, computer software, and simulation, systems analysis, environmental technologies, and testing and measurement.
ARA also takes pride in its culture, which values innovation & experimentation as the norm. At ARA, employees are our greatest assets, and we give our employees the tools, training, and opportunities to take active roles as owners. The motto, “Engineering and Science for Fun and Profit” sums up the ARA experience. The company recognizes that employee-ownership spurs greater creativity and initiative along with higher performance and client satisfaction levels.
To find out more about ARA, visit our website at: https://www.ara.com/
Qualifications
Education
Required
- Bachelors or better in Geophysics
Preferred
- Masters or better in Geophysics
Experience
Required
- 5-7 years: Experience with geophysical instrumentation and field work.
Preferred
- 5-7 years: Experience in performing geophysical research.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)